Your brand is not just your logo (overview)
One of my biggest pet peeves is seeing the word logo and brand used interchangeably. That just isn’t how things work. Your brand is all encompassing. It is the “person” of your business. It has a look, sure, but it also has a voice, a personality, a purpose!
Marion says, “Branding is the process of building a brand. To be more specific, it is a strategy designed by companies to help people to quickly identify their products and organization, and give them a reason to choose their products over the competition.” That doesn’t just sound like a logo, does it?
When thinking about developing your brand you need to think about the following areas:
1. Target Audience
2. Brand Name
3. Brand Tagline/Motto/Slogan
4. Brand Values and Mission
5. Brand Identity
6. Brand Voice
7. Market Position
Now, we’ll look at these individually in brief today and talk about why they are important to your small business’s success, but the details will come over the next several weeks, so stay tuned! Keep in mind this post is a bit of a long read, but future posts will only cover one topic, so will be much easier on the time clock. But hey, you’re getting paid for your time, right? … Right?!
1. Target Audience
Now, this, this is the starting point, the foundation of everything else. Knowing your target audience will make honing in on all of the other areas much easier. Having a conversation sitting with your best friend is much easier than a stranger behind a wall, isn’t it?
Knowing your target audience on a BFF level will save you time, money, and energy in the long run, especially if your business is small enough that you do not have employees in every department (marketing, social media, product development, etc.). Think of it like fishing in a stocked pond with a net versus fishing with the same net out in the middle of the ocean. Which is likely to catch more fish?
2. Brand Name
Often your name is the first impression someone gets of your business. It doesn’t have to say what you do, but it should be something that will appeal to your target audience in a way that sparks their curiosity. It should draw them in to find out more.
You want your name to be easy to spell, have no chance of being confused with another brand, not so long that the world’s short attention span runs out before they’ve finished reading it, and most of all, unique and memorable. When you’re considering possible names for your brand, think about things like how it will sound coming out of someone’s mouth when they’re approached with the question, “Oh! That _____ is so cute! Where did you get it?!” How easy will it be to find a URL? Will it be taken? Will your customers know how to spell the URL without you having to spell it?
3. Tagline/Motto/Slogan
Note: Your tagline also does not have to outright say what it is that you make or do, it should hint at it, but it should also say who you are as a company. Sure, you make or do this thing, but why? How do you connect with your audience?
Nike – Just do it, McDonalds – I’m lovin’ it, MasterCard – There are some things money can’t buy. For everything else, there’s MasterCard, Allstate – You’re in Good hands.
A tagline, motto, or slogan, while slightly different all share a similar purpose. They speak to the target audience in a way that speaks to the value of the brand and does so in a way that insinuates what is being sold.
Using MasterCard as an example, the tagline doesn’t say “Oh hi! We’re a credit card company!” It says we know the big, important things in life have no monetary value (speaks to the values of the company), but when you need the money, we’re here for all of it (we will give you money through credit).
4. Brand Values and Mission
Your brands values are important. You see companies talking about their values all the time, but how often do you see them living those values out?
Your core values don’t come without a cost. These, when well-defined, often make your job just a bit more difficult, but for the reason of serving a purpose to your target audience.
You want to be the most environmentally friendly company to sell pot holders? You have to commit to providing the best damn potholders you can and doing so by researching the most environmentally friendly materials and creation methods. That is what you want to share with your customers. That is what makes them part of your target audience. They care about this.
5. Brand Identity
Now, we can talk about logos. But, again, not just logos. Your identity is the whole look. It’s the whole shebang.
Colors, patterns, shapes, iconography, typography, font choice, and yes, the logo.
Often your logo will include many of these elements. It likely will include a font choice that can be used with or without any iconography or colors and shapes and still be recognized as your brand. Some logos are simply the name of the brand in a specific font. Some logos are simply an icon with no text.
The important part of your identity is that it is something that piques the curiosity of your target audience and stands out in a way that is memorable and recognizable.
6. Brand Voice
Brand voice is, in my opinion, one of the most important and undervalued aspects of a brand. Think of your brand voice as an actual voice. That means that your brand has to be thought of as a person. You’re already thinking of your target audience as your brand’s BFF, right? See where this is going?
Your brand voice is going to include things like tone, emotion, language, personality, etc.
When you speak, wherever you speak, it should be recognizably you. If a writer for Hot Topic were writing the Tweets for Disney Land, do you think you’d be able to tell the difference? Probably, right?
It takes time to establish the voice of your brand, but once you have it should be cemented in and anyone that is creating content should be familiar and have guidelines to follow to ensure consistency across all mediums.
7. Market Position
One of the more complex elements of your brand is how and where you will position yourself within the market. I made this a separate category for a reason. It takes a minute to wrap your head around, I think. Think about your market, whatever it may be – Clothing retail, high-end, custom wall-art, practical storage solutions – whatever it is, you need to establish yourself within that market as a stand-out, amazing creator/seller of those things, right?
Your market position is going to do that. You are going to use the many elements of your brand to shape how your purchaser sees you.
Entrepreneur recommends answering these questions (and I totally agree!):
What is your customer really buying? Are they buying the practical credit card or the emotional tie to the things money can’t buy?
How is your product different from your competitors? Hint: You can’t just say that it’s better. It is unlikely that you are selling a completely unheard of, never-before-produced product or service. So, what makes you (the seller and/or maker) different from the competitors (also sellers/makers)?
Are you offering an emotional connection? Are you offering a freebie? A community that ties your customers together in a safe place? What is it that makes you different? This is often one of the hardest questions to answer honestly.
What makes your product unique? Now think about the product itself, not the brand/seller/maker. What makes the product different than other products on the market?
So, now we’ve covered the elements of a brand and hopefully you have a better understanding of exactly what brand development entails. Over the next several weeks, I’ll spend time going over each element in more detail, especially in talking about why they are important to your success.